


because the code says you can't

by bomyregards



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Dissociation, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Meta, Other, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-14
Updated: 2015-11-14
Packaged: 2018-05-01 13:32:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5207687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bomyregards/pseuds/bomyregards
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's getting boring. Living here, day in and day out, with no real changes. What more can you discover? What more can you find?</p><p>[Reader as Frisk, not Player]</p>
            </blockquote>





	because the code says you can't

**Author's Note:**

> gaster/reader comes in 2nd chapter sorry bois

You roll over in your bed, restless. All you know is what you felt: the sheets on top of you. Your legs curled up on the plush mattress. The cool air flitting through your fingertips. Otherwise there is nothing. Emptiness. Your chest is hollowed, and you are essentially just waiting for something to happen.

  


You've been staying with Ms. Toriel for quite some time. Everything is calm in the Ruins. Ms. Toriel takes excellent care of you, and the monsters dwelling there have gotten used to your company. When you go on your daily walks (as there is little else to entertain you in the otherwise cozy home,) Froggits will hop up to you and you will play for a while. Whimsums will actually come within a meter of you. A few even let you hold your hand out to them. They all enjoy your company.

  


It's getting boring.

  


_You should just leave._ You've identified every pattern of these monsters. Eventually they will get to a point where their actions will simply loop. Froggits are already there. Day in and day out, it's playtime. Whimsums are getting there. They'll get close enough to touch and then flee. Every. Single. One. Vegetoids never changed. Migosps, Loox, Moldsmals never changed.

  


Toriel never changes. She'll tell you a joke, a fact, or every third fucking _special_ day, after dinnertime, she'll read you a passage from one of her few texts. All you wanted is something different. Something to **save** you from this headache. All because _you_ wanted to sate that stupid goat's desires. All because _you_ couldn't stand the heartache of leaving her, having you hug her again.

  


You just have to explore every notion of every motion each creature in this place makes. Learn every pattern and discover every nuance of each monsters' action to see if something, _anything, please god anything_ changed. But nothing did.

  


At this point, you are honestly considering pressing that [RESET]. To go back to the beginning and learn something new. Or maybe just repeat yourself and free everyone. But you can't stand this file any longer. There was no way for you to stay with Toriel. Maybe you could try to find a way to live with the skeleton brothers. You thought you'd far exhausted that already, but there's always a chance. Maybe Alphys' lab. Maybe Undyne, Napstablook, Asgore.

  


There's many choices, but it's all limited. There's so few people to exploit because it's all limited code. Cleaned up, wrapped up, each with individual scripts and commands. Walking through walls is impossible because the code says you can't. Opening a locked door is impossible because the code says you can't. So far, as you've discovered, staying with your friends is impossible because the code says you can't, unless you literally stopped existing and _pretended_ you were living a happy life with character_main_Toriel or whatever her actions and scripts were listed under.

  


You could look again. See what mysteries you find. Probably nothing. You could take yourself out of the cycle of just being presented something for the millionth time and attempt to make something happen. Find some mysterious, unused sprites (spr_g_follower1?). You can find a way to meet them. Rather, you could force a way to meet them. Change the strange Fun value, which, in your meddling, did nothing to any character you had already met. Sans, annoyingly enough, had nothing to say about fun, or puns about fun, anything to do with fun! Toriel didn't strike you as the type to know anything about the game's coding, but you exhausted her dialogue trees as well, trying to find a hint.

  


You gave up your search after Waterfall, really. You were getting bored, and you had had to go back to trying to live with so-and-so. Eventually, you would pick the hunt back up and... you suppose that day would be today.

  


You brushed your hands over [RESET]. Your vision went white. Your head pounded against its skull rhythmically, trying to give you a sound of _you've reset the timeline._ Your body hit something hard and your vision went black. You rolled your arms and shoulders, popping and cracking your joints and knuckles. It shouldn't take you too long to get to Hotlands if you rushed. The fastest way there is to, unfortunately, kill Toriel, but... you'll take the extra time to spare her. She took such good care of you, after all. You speed through the Ruins and relentlessly spared Toriel, not even dodging her attacks because you knew she'd never really hurt you.

  


She really wouldn't. You know this, and yet...

  


It scared you. Being hurt. Being hurt by your friends. The friends you've grown to love and trust... forgetting you. Ignoring you. Moving onto any other person. Treating you coldly and callously.

  


Maybe that's why you were obsessively rummaging through every bit and piece of dialogue, every file you could get your hands on. You needed to ensure yourself there was no reason any of them could fault you unless you gave them a reason. You needed to make sure you never forgot them, never forgot anything of what made their character up, and they wouldn't forget you in return, right?

  


Maybe that's why you're exploring this new trend. This Fun value. Whoever _G_ is. Whoever the man who spoke in hands was. Because you needed him to know you. Remember him. Make friends with him, honestly, because you had to make friends with everyone. Maybe there's a secret, hidden ending.

  


You rushed through Snowdin, humoring Papyrus and ignoring Sans' weird looks. Something told you that _he knew_. You'll explore that later. Maybe it comes up when you don't spend your time befriending every single monster you met. You were a bit nervous to find out, really.

  


Strangely, the River Person said nothing new about it your changing the Fun value. You wouldn't expect the River Person to know all about fun and joy, not to be rude, but they did seem oddly omnipotent. They only spoke of the mysterious man who speaks in hands, a character you were always fascinated with, but initially brushed off as the River Person talking about themself, trying to scare you or something.

  


It's an easy, practiced trip. You said goodbye as the River Person sailed off on their dogship and you were off again, running. Your shoes were still wet, but the pervasive heat would easily fix that. You chatted up every monster you came across, playing jump rope with Pyrope's and teasing Tsundereplane - always a fun exploit. You went up this elevator and that, and something stopped you in your tracks.

  


It was just... a blob. A gray mass. A formless _thing_ that had no right to be there. You've scoured this area. You've scoured Hotland. You've seen every single monster there is to see - So Sorry, included. You hesitantly made your way over to it. Was this thing... was he G? He didn't have hands you could see - his entire being was just a large head and neck, mouth wide open into some sort of mangled smile. You greet him.

  


*** I understand why ASGORE waited so long to hire a new Royal Scientist.**  
  


*** The previous one...**  


  


*** Dr. Gaster.**

  


_G. Gaster. Dr. Gaster. Royal Scientist._ Your head was buzzing, screaming, melting attempting to process all this information. This fantastically new information.

  


*** His brilliance was irreplaceable.**  


  


*** However, his life...**  


  


*** Was cut short.**  


  


_Dead. Someone that's actually dead. That's never happened before. Not unless you caused it._

  


*** One day, his experiments went wrong, and...**

  


He stopped talking. You prompted him to talk again, curious that he didn't immediately disappear or anything.

  


*** Well, I needn't gossip.**  


  


*** After all, it's rude to talk about someone who's listening.**

  


You prompted again. And again. And again. He repeated these very words over and over. You started to get scared. _It's rude_ your mind races. _to talk about_ your hands are sweating. _someone's who's_ your vision is going hazy. **listening** you didn't expect to feel this way by just knowing new information, is this some sort of high about this epiphany of this completely new character? Are you mourning him? Are you haunted already by this ghost?

  


Are you being affected by some outer force, wiggling its way into your mind and eating at you? You can't tell. All you can tell is the world going white around you, your brain attempting to come up with any noise as your heart beats rhythmically, trying to tell you to [RESET] and you can't listen, no, please, you're just _not done with you--!_

  


Your vision fades to black and you collapse. One word burns in your mind. _Flowey._

  


No. Another thought shatters that word, the pieces of _Flowey_ flying everywhere. Inky letters replace it, globs of whatever covering the empty space in your mind's eye.

  


**_G̸̛͡à̶͟s͏̸̀t͏e̛r̷._ **


End file.
